"A Good Man Is Hard to Find" analysis essay

“A Good Man Is Hard to Find”

            A story is made up of many elements. A short story with many elements can be used to employ an interesting piece of literary work. Flannery O’Connor’s cynical tale, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” uses the elements of characterization, symbolism, and theme to make an account that has many confused about whether the story is a horror story, a black comedy, or a depiction of God’s works through humans. “Maybe it's even all of these at once” (Shmoop). The story presents the debate that good versus evil is more than a typical war story. When one examines humans, it is seen that inevitably all good is tainted with bad and every bad is threaded with some good.

            The characterization in a story supports the theme by showing realistic humans in extreme situations. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” demonstrates the point by showing the grandmother as representing a majority of the good that’s in the world and The Misfit as an example of the evil in the world in the situation of facing a murderer. The mother and children embody the innocent in the world who are subjected to the wrong doings of evil. The family have to deal with a situation that was only skewed and dangerous because of the grandmother’s, the “good” person, interference with the plans.

The grandmother’s goodness is implied as she insinuates herself as a “lady” (O’Conner 421). She is seen pleading for the sake of the children in the beginning of the story, pleading for the sake of their safety (420). In addition, the grandmother shows that on this earth, nobody is perfect. Everybody has a humanistic downfall that brings them closer to the side of evil. This is portrayed in the judgmental character of the grandmother. She judges the mother of the children by criticizing her parenting skills and then compares her face to a cabbage (420). Inside the car, she rebukes John Wesley for his lack of pride and respect towards Georgia saying that a little boy should have a higher opinion toward his native state (422). She starts to judgmentally talk about her views on current state of the world and how people have all turned into untrustworthy and appalling people (424).

The grandmother is a static character. “‘Maybe He didn’t raise the dead’” (432) wasn’t an epiphany for her or a change in faith because it goes on to explain that she didn’t know what she was saying and “she sank down in the ditch with her legs twisted under her” (432). She was a judgmental old lady who stayed that way. In the end of the story, she hadn’t really changed, she was crumpling under pressure. The grandmother was doing what she could to convince The Misfit not to shoot her. In her last act of crying out, “‘Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!’” (433) and by touching his shoulder, she was seeking to lessen her blow. She had tried this method of handling situations before when the car crashed; she hoped she was badly injured so “Bailey’s wrath wouldn’t come down on her all at once” (426), and then she cried out, “I believe I have injured an organ” (427) but to no effect. The grandmother, although shown to be more virtuous than some of the other characters, is a static character who tries to manipulate people from the beginning of the story up until her last words.

            The Misfit, on the other hand, shows his wickedness through his actions and then what he thinks about them. He claims “‘…the crime don’t matter’” (431) and he says that the criminal will forget what they did and receive unfair punishment anyway. He also states that there is “no pleasure but meanness” (432). The Misfit is a static character who starts as a murderer and ends by killing a whole family. The Misfit cannot understand what good is. He thinks that Jesus threw the world off balance because of what he did (432). He does terrible things the way most people do normal things: relaxed. The Misfit represents the evil in the world, but as ruthless and calloused as he is, he isn’t always uncivilized or hasty. The grandmother recognized The Misfit as the escaped prisoner she read about and The Misfit didn’t react swiftly to silence her. Instead, he comforts her (after her son makes a shocking remark) by saying, “‘Lady,’ he said, ‘don’t you get upset. Sometimes a man says things he don’t mean. I don’t reckon he meant to talk to you thataway’” (428). He respects ladies; even  if it only is by apologizing for his naked chest or speaking politely to them, The Misfit shows that he isn’t a savage beast (430).

            The grandmother’s daughter-in-law and her three kids are primarily viewed as innocent characters who don’t provide much opposition to good, or resistance to evil, in the story. Though everyone has bits of good and evil in them, these characters’ actions are so few that it’s hard to analyze. There is little insight into how the characters deal with The Misfit when confronted with mortal danger. Even when knowing that they are going off to die where Bailey died, the point of view doesn’t reveal any sort of emotion or thought from the family members (431). It is difficult to tag any of them as either mainly good or mainly wicked because their actions never pushed them too far one way or the other. The mother and her children represent the people in the world who walk by; they are not closely observed and go by unnoticed the majority of the time. Their motives are never analyzed within the story so judgment is difficult to make.

            The symbolism throughout the story shows the mix of good and evil and foreshadows the events to come. The grandmother’s hat (421), for instance, symbolizes a moral code. The moral code that the grandmother has made up for herself is that she is a lady who will always let it be known. She made her dress and hat look perfect in case of an accident where she ended up dead on the highway; people would know that she was a lady (421). She didn’t seem to care that in this scenario she was dead; she just found that presenting herself as a lady was an important thing. Ladies are generally good-natured and respected so the grandmother’s want to be perceived like that is a respectable thing. However, being unconcerned about her family’s, and her own, safety is distinguished as an immoral thought.

While the grandmother’s hat symbolizes something good natured and respected, there are many items that symbolize and foreshadow terrible events. While driving to their destination in Florida, the family passes through a town. As soon as they exit the town of Toombsboro, the grandmother wakes up and remembers a house she once visited. Toombsboro is brought up right before the family is introduced to the character of The Misfit (425). The name indicates the word “tomb”. This name foreshadows the event that leads the family to their grave.

The woods are hugely symbolic. The woods are described as “tall and dark and deep” (427). The woods symbolize the Grim Reaper, the personification of death. “The most common embodiment of the Grim Reaper is a tall, dark figure, clad in the black robes of a monk” (Paranda).

“Alone with The Misfit, the grandmother found that she had lost her voice. There was not a cloud in the sky nor any sun. There was nothing around her but woods” (O’Connor 432). This passage foreshadows the intimate and unescapable demise of the grandmother because it describes her setting as solitarily death surrounding her. These are the woods that five members of the family go off and are murdered, confirmed when The Misfit, after shooting the grandmother in the chest, tells Hiram and Bobby Lee, “‘Take her off and throw her where you thown the others’” (O’Connor 433).

            The theme, “the unifying generalization about life stated or implied by the story” (Arp and Johnson 191) is that there is no purely righteous person in the world, nor is there a wholly wicked person. We come to see through “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” that though many try to be perfectly good, human’s idiosyncrasies bring mistakes. The grandmother is judgmental, although she tries to appear virtuous by her clothing and posture (O’Connor 421). People who are devilish in their actions can have good qualities. The Misfit kills people with seemingly no second thought, but he takes the time to have a conversation and treat the grandmother as a colloquial equal (428).

            Through the characters in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” show that no person can be simply black or white. By analyzing the characterization, symbolism, and the main theme, O’Connor reveals that there are shades to every human that can be seen through their motives.

Works Cited

Arp, Thomas, and Greg Johnson. Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. Tenth Ed.

 Ed. Thomas Arp and Greg Johnson. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.

O’Connor, Flannery. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and

            Sense. Tenth Ed. Ed. Thomas Arp and Greg Johnson. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage

            Learning, 2009. 420. Print.

Paranda. “Grim Reaper.” Everything2.com. Everything2 Media, LLC. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.

Shmoop Editorial Team. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc.,

            11 Nov. 2008. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.

Static and Kinetic Friction Lab Conclusion

            In our static and kinetic friction lab, we were able to see how the weight of an object affects its friction, measure its coefficients, and decipher is the weight affects the coefficient. We were able to do all of these things and come up with a solid conclusion in the end. We were able to see through the use of F=umg, that the weight of the object didn’t matter in finding its coefficient. Using the same equation for our different sets of data, both average coefficients of kinetic friction is within a couple hundredths of each other. The coefficient is not based upon weight because when we are finding the coefficient, we use the formulas that a=mg and F=ma. We end up dividing the two formulas so in the end we divide out the mass of the object making it useless. Through this lab, we were able to track the forces needed in static friction and kinetic friction. In graph #1, we see that there is a greater force needed at the start because of the static friction (labeled in green). My partners and I were able to do this lab fairly easily, though at the beginning there was communication error and not too long after that I mistook 500 g for 500 kg, throwing off my data. If I let it throw off my data by that much, I would have had to divide by a much bigger normal force. Through everything, I found this lab to be very fun and very informative and teaching for the concepts of static and kinetic friction through the use of wooden blocks.

Free Fall Lab Conclusion

My partner and I were able to analyze a graph of a bungee jumper during free fall and the acceleration during the time the cord was stretching. We were able to compare our testing jump simulation to that of a real life jump. We were able to do these things and learn a lot. We were able to see that free fall does only have the acceleration a gravity (-9.8 m/s^2). We saw how the highest peak on the graph matched up to when our man was the lowest and had the bungee stretched out. We were able to see the acceleration during the bounces and at different times (in seconds). We were able to use the graphs to determine what was asked in the objectives, such as, we labeled on Graph #2 where the acceleration was the maximum and the minimum.

            We saw Physics’ concepts in our lab when we realized that forces were at play. We saw that the force of gravity and the force of the bungee cord were the reasons for the acceleration differences on the graph. We saw that the lowest acceleration that our man would be going going down was the acceleration of gravity, which is -9.8m/s^2. The Table even shows the fluctuations that appeared during the jump. We were able to use our equation of to find how long the bungee cord was because we were able to use our acceleration during the period of free fall and the time that the man was in free fall.

            Though my partners and I weren’t perfect (we had to drop our bungee man over again multiple times because she would smash into the table, so it’s a good thing we didn’t use those test runs or else the information would have been skewed; we also used the wrong equation at first to find the length of the cord which made the cord come out to look like 5 meters so it’s a good thing we didn’t use that one) we were able to learn about the effects of the force of the bungee cord on the acceleration after a free fall.

Theme in "The Darling"

“The Darling”

            “The Darling” is a short story written by Anton Chekhov in the late 1890s that expresses a “negative commentary on the sort of woman who has no intellectual life of her own” (Coulehan). By writing this story, Chekhov is making the statement that women need to be more than merely “darlings” (Coulehan). He points out the fault in the main character, Olenka; this woman fell for everything. She accepted what came at her like it was the only thing to do, such as, adopting the opinions of another, accepting emotional abuse, and being a pushover when it came to business. By not being independent, Olenka showed that when one stands for nothing, they could fall for everything.

            Olenka is often seen taking the opinions of the one closest to her at that time. The first time there is any dialogue from her she is echoing the words of her current husband, Kukin. She is repeating what he had said the first time his character gets introduced. “They want a clown; what they ask for is vulgarity” (Chekhov 212). Olenka later recites, “What they want is a clown” (213). Olenka couldn’t bear to think for herself. In every situation she was in, she grabbed onto the opinions of those closest to her. “She repeated the veterinary surgeon’s words and was of the same opinion as he about everything” (218). “Her husband’s ideas were hers” (216). And those times when she had barely anyone around her, she clung: “Whatever Mavra, the cook, said she accepted” (219). It didn’t matter how irreverent the opinions were to her life personally, Olenka would take them into her life and make them pertinent. At the end of the story, the only person in the old and grey Olenka’s life was a pre-teen boy, Sasha. Since she had no true opinions of her own, she went on and on about the high school. She could speak about whatever Sasha had spoken about because “Now she had opinions of her own” (220). “Opinion transference” can be seen in mainly women, in their 20s, who aren’t sure of what they like and are willing to do and think anything for their boyfriend (Oxyious). Olenka showed that despite the nature of opinion, some women would follow anything when they don’t have anything of their own.

            Also typically seen in young women is their justification of abuse by their partner. It will be rationalized by saying, “But I love him, and I know he loves me” or “It was my fault; I’m so lucky he will still stay with someone like me.” Olenka is no different. Voloditchka “would seize her by the hand” and hiss about how she was not allowed to talk about his veterinary surgeon things and how it was annoying (Chekov 218). She wouldn’t stand up for herself because she knew that doing that might make him leave, which would signal the end of her opinions. Olenka admitted that when she had the veterinary surgeon or either of her husbands, she “could explain everything, and give her opinion about anything you like …” (219). She tolerated this emotional and verbal abuse full heartedly. She would apologize for these incidents, he would just smile and they would be happy. Olenka was happy because she still had opinions to cling onto and he was smiling and happy because abusers always are when their victim crumples beneath them. It’s easy to believe that Olenka would gleefully put up with that kind of behavior from someone close to her because she was so dependent on them. After the veterinarian surgeon had emotionally abused her, left her, and never returned, Olenka still tried to take him back into her life by offering him everything she possessed (218-220).

            That is exactly what he and his reconciled wife did to Olenka. When she offered to let the veterinarian surgeon, his wife, and their young son stay in her house and that she “wouldn’t take any rent” that’s what they did (220). When she started taking care of and living with their son Sasha, the parents did not stop them (221-222). Olenka had becoming a landlady and a child care all rolled into one. She had no thoughts of whether this was unjust to her. She was satisfied because finally, after all these years, she had someone’s opinion to adhere to: their pre-teen son, Sasha. While his mother had moved to Harkov and his father rarely saw them, Sasha was raised by Olenka. She did not see that she was being used, or that her house was being used. That was the kind of person Olenka was. She was a pushover because she did not know what to do. She let this family come in and use her.

            Olenka couldn’t make up her own mind. She had never been weaned from her parents’ opinions and henceforth she had to have someone else to rely on. This complete reliance led her to fall for and accept everything that came into her life. She accepted everything, even abuse a situation that is not uncommon. This behavior can be found in addicts who have lost the ability to control their own actions. This behavior is also present in every person in some degree. How many times has someone’s opinion been influenced by the world around them? Chekov asks the readers to ponder: To what degree are we like Olenka?

Work Cited

Chekhov, Anton. “The Darling.” Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. Tenth

            Ed. Ed.            Thomas Arp and Greg Johnson. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2009.

            213. Print.

Coulehan, Jack. Litmed. New York University School of Medicine, 13 Aug. 1996. Web. 18 Sept.

            2013.

Oxyious. (2011, July 14). Inability to form my own opinions while using- does this post resonate

with anyone? [Permalink]. Message posted to http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/

substance-abuse/231747-inability-form-my-own-opinions-while-using-does-post-resonate-anyone.html

"Hunters in the Snow" literary analysis

“Hunters in the Snow”

            “Any piece of work is given the label as ‘literary’ if it illuminates some aspect of human life or behavior with genuine originality and power” (Hunters). “Hunters in the Snow” uses some of the same features as “The Most Dangerous Game,” such as the hunt and the incident with dogs, but that is as far as they parallel. Tobias Wolff’s short story “Hunters in the Snow” exemplifies literary fiction. The setting shows that through the weather and the symbolism that it carries. The deep, complicated, and real characters show a parallel to this earth we live on right now and its people. The short story has disturbing twists and turns in its plot that are not intended to give pleasure to the reader, but instead show the chaos that is prevalent in the r human lives.

            One characteristic of a literary piece is symbolism. “Hunters in the Snow” is full of symbolic references, such as the weather. In this case, the weather is snowy, cold, and miserable to be in. Tub had to trudge through almost knee deep snow and “the edge of the crust bruised his shins” (Wolff 89). This is near the beginning of the story when Tub was the main character getting picked on. This hostile weather represents how the people in his life are hostile. A change of events occurs after Tub shoots Kenny and Kenny becomes the weak, picked on friend. Kenny is dropped, rolled down snow, brutally throw in the back of a freezing pick-up truck, and even his blankets are taken away by his friends to keep them warm and leave Kenny to the elements (91-99). This cold weather that Kenny’s experiencing is also a symbol to the coldness of peoples’ hearts. The way his friends leave him in the cold conditions shows their lack of concern for Kenny and their lack of empathy and responsibility as friends. Another example of symbolism comes at the end of the story. “Right overhead was the Big Dipper, and behind, hanging between Kenny's toes in the direction of the hospital, was the North Star, Pole Star, Help to Sailors. … They had taken a different turn a long way back” (99). The North Star is a classic symbol, often used as a compass during the night. In opposition, Wolff uses the North Star to show that they are going in a direction opposite their desired destination.

            The characters make this piece literary because of the depth Wolff gives them and their realistic qualities of being egocentric and insensitive toward others. Man has an inborn desire to lean toward his own self-interest and his own needs. There was the self-interest and insensitivity when Frank and Tub took Kenny’s blankets near the end of the story, but Kenny also has acted in self-interest. Earlier, Kenny asked permission to hunt on a farmer’s land and he was asked to shoot the dog (91). One might figure that Kenny figured if he didn’t agree to put the dog down, the farmers wouldn’t let him hunt. So when Tub and the reader found out that Kenny was actually requested to shoot the dog, one might think nothing of his motivations but it could be that Kenny was completely self-driven and just wanted to go hunt his deer. Also, Frank shows a rather selfish quality when buying Tub the pancakes. He didn’t want to feed his food-loving friend, but to justify his own vices. If Tub gave in to his weaknesses so lustfully and eats four plates of pancakes, then he has justification to his own affair with a fifteen-year-old girl. Wolff shows readers a view of humanity that most people don’t want to see.

            Evidence that “Hunters in the Snow” is literary work can also been seen in the plot. Unexpected and disturbing plot twists induce the reader to analyze the intricate reasons for the story’s events (Hunters). The plot twists are not designed, nor intended, to give readers the pleasure or the suspense that commercial fiction gives. These plot twists make the reader jump back and question why the characters chose that course of action; they make the reader question people as they really are and their motivations. The sudden shooting of Kenny (91)  is unexpected and shocks the readers. Before this, there was no evidence that Tub even had it in him to shoot a man. This scene leaves the reader confused and wanting to figure out Tub as a character. The unsettling ending also takes this work away from the commercial fiction realm because it is not a happy or resolved ending. It is an unsettling and indeterminate ending that consigns a reader to think about the story long after they’ve finished reading it, pondering, and how they would have functioned in that sort of situation.

            Wolff helps readers see into humanity at an up close point. It may use some of the same elements as the commercial fiction story “The Most Dangerous Game,” such as the hunt and the presence of dogs, through the symbolism, character motivations, and plot twists, the reader is left to ponder about the world they live in.

Work Cited

“Hunters in the Snow.” Wikispaces. N.p., 13 Sept. 2009. Web. 15 Sept. 2013.

Wolff, Tobias. “Hunters in the Snow.” Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. Tenth

            Ed. Ed. Thomas Arp and Greg Johnson. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2009.

            86. Print.

A Child’s Eyes - World War II

A Child’s Eyes

Daddy’s across the seas

And will be back at an unknown date

My mommy’s in the factories

She always stays until very, very late

My sister’s off with momma

My brother’s off to war

I’m all alone at my house

I’ve only got myself to account for

My uncle had come back

He could hardly even walk

With just one foot and a cane

And something called “Shell Shock”

“Food will win the war” they had said -

“Meatless Mondays” -

The restrictions were growing -

And even “Wheatless Wednesdays”

“Food was becoming scarce”, momma told me

As we put back half of my dinner plate

Then the next thing that started to drop

Was my very own body weight

My arms missed my poppa

My stomach growled for food

When will this all cease?

When will this conclude?

This war is doing nothing for me

I can’t see its help

My life has turned upside down

It’s the hurt that I’ve felt.

My letter to the Skeptics and the Snot-Nosed, Abhorrent Humans of this World.

My letter to the Skeptics and the Snot-Nosed, Abhorrent Humans of this World.

“How do you tell if something's alive? You check for breathing.”

― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

            It’s the simple element of life. Things breathe to live. I don’t care if you can hold your breath for three minutes; if you want to stay alive you got to get that air into your lungs. I don’t think the universe cares that you think you’re the coolest fish ever and don’t need any oxygen; it’ll kill you if you decide not to breath. Donkeys, cats, dolphins, zebras, rodents, humans, and dromedaries all need that life-giving gas in their bodies. But some cynics and obnoxious people might question “Why?” or maybe even a “How?” Well if you promise not to ask me too many questions, I might just go over all this with you.

            To get a basic understanding of all of this, we need to know the body parts associated with this amazing system.

·         The nasal cavity is the lumpy part of your face that gets broken if you fall on your face. It’s also the only external part of the whole respiratory system. This is where air gets inhaled, filtered, and humidified.

·         The oral cavity is the secondary point that the air will enter through in the respiratory system.

·         The pharynx is the “muscular membranous channel connecting the nasal cavity to the larynx and the oral cavity to the esophagus; it enables breathing, ingestion of food and speech.” (Merriam-Webster dictionary).

·         The larynx, in simplest terms, is the voice box. It’s pretty much just a tube made with cartilage rings. Without it, you might swallow your air and breathe in your delicious tuna sandwich.

·         The trachea is between the larynx and the bronchia. It’s the continuation of the larynx that splits into two main bronchi, each leading to a different lung, and permits air to pass.

·         The bronchi are either of the two main branches that had split from the trachea. Coming from the Greek word brónchos, meaning windpipe.

·         The lungs are the main respiratory organ. It’s divided into two lobes: the right and the left. The blood gets cleaned of carbon dioxide and enriched with oxygen that came from the pulmonary artery.

·         The heart sends blood through the pulmonary artery and through the lungs to be cleansed.

·         The ribs are the bone structure that protects the lungs from any damage that might be inflicted.

To visualize the order all of these go through, here is a handy dandy picture for your studying pleasure.

Cool. So do we got all of this? There are also smaller parts of the system that we can go over when we get to them.

            So starting at the very beginning let’s say you are walking through a path that is just surrounded by dandelions. You, loving dandelions, of course, take in a huge breath of the flower’s fragrance. As it enters into your nostrils, the air gets purified of dust and dirt, and is warmed. In your nose there are lateral walls that have projections called the conchae which increase the surface area of where the air will hit. Now, on the inside of the cavity, it is lined with respiratory mucosa which will moisten the incoming air and trap the foreign particles that try to get in. On the superior surface of the cavity, there are olfactory receptors in the mucosa that will take the smell of the dandelion and tell it to the part of your brain it needs to go so it can communicate that you indeed smell a delicious dandelion.

            After the trip through the snotty part, the air travels through the pharynx. The pharynx is, for all good intentions, the throat. There are three regions of the pharynx. There’s (from superior to inferior) the nasopharynx, the oropharynx, and the laryngopharynx. The last two, the oropharynx and the laryngopharynx, are the most common passageways for food and air.

            After the pharynx, the dandelion air will enter the larynx. The larynx (being the voice box) does allow for vibrations and plays a role in speech, but also uses the epiglottis to direct the food for the ingestion by closing off the respiratory tract. The larynx routes the food and the air that come in to its proper channel. It also has the glottis which is the opening between vocal chords and the Adam’s apple which is a bunch of thyroid cartilage and the largest of the hyaline cartilage.

            The trachea is the windpipe that connects the larynx with the bronchi. The windpipe has its own form of removing dust and grossness. Its ciliated mucosa is always pushing in the opposite direction on the incoming air.

            The primary bronchi are when the trachea splits into two parts at the end and it enters the lung at the hilus. The bronchi that goes to the right lung is like the “Yao: King of the Rock” of the respiratory world. It’s wider, shorter, and straighter than the left bronchi is (who probably represents Mulan in the respiratory world, she kicks butt). The bronchi start splitting into smaller and smaller branches, the smallest of which being the bronchioles. The bronchioles have reinforcing cartilage, except for the very tiniest branches. The ending branches end in alveoli. It goes from primary bronchi, to secondary bronchi, to tertiary bronchi, to bronchiole, and ends up at terminal bronchiole.

            The lungs are covered in pulmonary (visceral) pleura. On the inside walls of the thoracic cavity parietal pleura lines the walls. And pleural fluid fills the area between layers of pleura to allow the lungs to be free and gliding. The lungs will expand when air is being put into them. Without that, then our lungs would stay at a negative pressure.

            The heart is important to the respiratory system because one of the reasons for the respiratory system is to get the oxygen back into the blood. The deoxygenated blood is being pumped through the pulmonary veins through the lungs to get the oxygen and be returned back to the heart so it could be sent out through the blood once again.

            The ribs just keep the heart and lungs and organs that are down there safe from any foul play by a wandering ninja or an unemployed Power Ranger.

            Now that we’ve been through the respiratory system, I hope you will stop being one of those specifically obnoxious people who won’t just believe when we say that it happens; and stop also needing to know “Why?” and “How”? This system will keep you alive in the darkest days. Until one day it doesn’t. And then you’re dead. But keep breathing and stay alive. Markus Zusak was a very smart man.

Fitzgerald: Revisited

Fitzgerald: Revisited

“He wanted not association with glittering things and glittering people — he wanted the glittering things themselves.” (Fitzgerald).

            Fame and fortune has been known to drastically change some people’s lives. From child stars who went from sweethearts to drug abusers and middle class people who became depressed after winning the lottery, people can flip one-eighty. This world-wide phenomenon can be seen in some of the world’s great writers such as Ernest Hemingway who ended up committing suicide. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was also affected by his sudden shove into the proverbial limelight. From his innocent and  introverted childhood, to his pursuit for love, to the beginning of his fame and troubles, all leading to the ending years of his life, we can see that fame had certainly gotten the best of F. Scott Fitzgerald in the end.

Fitzgerald’s early childhood was a normal one for the 1900’s. Two sisters, ages one and three, died of influenza right before F. Scott was born driving his mother to be overprotective of him. (Caudle). He grew up moving between Buffalo, New York and Syracuse, New York because of his father’s job. The Fitzgeralds lived a modest life though keeping work was hard for F. Scott’s father. At the age of twelve, the family moved to St. Paul to live off the inheritance that F. Scott’s deceased grandmother left for her daughter. With this money, his father and mother sent him to St. Paul Academy where he stayed for two years. This is when he was first published; it was in the school newspaper. At age fifteen, F. Scott was sent to the Newman School in New Jersey, a prestigious Catholic preparatory school. (Biography). He moved on to pursue his artistic abilities in writing at Princeton University. Soon enough, Fitzgerald’s regular coursework began to suffer, he was placed on academic probation, and dropped out of school to enlist in the army in 1917.

Making his way up to the command of a second lieutenant in the infantry and being stationed at Montgomery, Alabama changed the course of his life forever. (Willett). Afraid of dying in war, F. Scott wrote The Romantic Egotist. The publishers turned his book down, but encouraged him to revise it and try again. In July of 1918 at a country club dance in Montgomery, Fitzgerald met Zelda Sayre. It was love at first sight for Fitzgerald. Then on November 11^th World War I ends before Fitzgerald ever gets the chance to leave the U. S. This would become one of his greatest regrets from his life. Looking to eventually marry Zelda, Fitzgerald moves to New York and takes up the job in advertising.  Not being rich or famous enough for her, Zelda breaks off the courtship that they had and also breaks his heart. A biographer of Fitzgerald wrote, “Unwilling to wait while Fitzgerald succeeded in the advertisement business and unwilling to live on his small salary, Zelda Sayre broke their engagement.” (Bruccoli). Determined to be the man of her dreams, Fitzgerald quits his job and moves back to St. Paul to continue with his writing career. He returned to The Romantic Egotist revising it over and over again. This time when turned into the same publishers it was accepted; it was revised to be entitled This Side of Paradise. He wrote to the publisher pleading for an accelerated release. “‘I have so many things dependent on its success—including of course a girl.’” (Milford 54). Finding fame and fortune overnight from his new book, Fitzgerald went back to Zelda and they married a week later in New York in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. (Shmoop). Fitzgerald had everything in life he could want at this point: the woman of his dreams, money, and a home in the Commodore, the newest and best hotel.

Then the money started getting to their heads. They were kids with more money than they knew what to do with. “They filled their first weeks with antics, and the newspapers filled their pages with the Fitzgeralds. Scott undressed at George White’s Scandals, Zelda dived fully dressed in the Washington Square fountain. The media watched as the Fitzgeralds lived life on the wind.” (Cline 87). They got kicked out of two hotels, one being the Commodore, for their drunkenness. Their whole social life was driven with alcoholic drinks. In public this meant falling asleep in a drunken state at parties, but in their personal lives arguments broke out and bitter fights were waged. (Bruccoli). Even though their lives seemed to be a huge party, they were still just young kids in love. They had a daughter, Frances Scott (Scottie), born in 1921. When Scottie was three, the family moved to France so F. Scott could work on his book The Great Gatsby. (Greatest). “Among their closest expatriate friends were Gerald and Sara Murphy, whose daughter Honoria … remembers the Fitzgeralds as ‘a very romantic unit. What stays with me is the way Scott looked at her with this totally admiring look on his face. And she did look ravishing. She always wore a peony on her left shoulder.’” (Greatest). This is how they lived there life until 1930.

In 1930 Zelda had her first mental breakdown. F. Scott always attributed it to Zelda’s zealous ballet practices. She would habitually practice ten hours a day starting in 1927. After her breakdown, Zelda was admitted into then Malmaison Clinic outside Paris. She eventually was diagnosed as a schizophrenic and told by her doctors to stop dancing. (Americans). Having Zelda so far from F. Scott strained their relationship and they became estranged from one another. He was forced to stop the work on his book and start working for Hollywood as a screenwriter to pay all of the hospital bills. In Hollywood, F. Scott took up an affair with Sheilah Graham, a gossip columnist. In the meanwhile, Zelda was moving to different mental hospitals up and down the East coast of the United States. F. Scott’s and Graham’s affair lasted less than three years, ending only at the end of his life at age forty. Sheilah Graham was with F. Scott when he had a heart attack and died. Though his last moments were with Graham, people still remember his heart always belonging to and being with his wife, Zelda. (Greatest). A letter written to Zelda by the hand of F. Scott states that he knows the happy ever after isn't there anymore but he gives the sense that he wishes things would have turned out differently and that he still thinks of her often. It was written the same year F. Scott died. “‘It’s odd that my old talent for the short story vanished. It was partly that times changed, editors changed, but part of it was tied up somehow with you and me—the happy ending…’” (Steinkellner). Zelda and F. Scott’s daughter recalls that even in the last days of Zelda’s life that Zelda still wrote beautiful letters about him. “‘The tenderness is the point. That survived everything.’” (Greatest).

F. Scott’s Fitzgerald’s life was changed by the fame and fortune that his writing career and book publications brought him. Much like other celebrities from today’s time, F. Scott Fitzgerald took a turn for the worst in the middle of his walk in the limelight. In Fitzgerald’s quiet childhood he was the only kid of his parents; his courtship to Zelda was serious and passionate. Then his life became one big party after fame struck, changing drastically from the life he lived before. All this lead to the estrangement from his wife and an early death. His fame had taken over his life. But does anyone really get out of this world without being tainted by the bright lights and the want for their name immortalized anyway? Will you?

Works Cited

Biography. A+E Television Networks. Web. 24 Apr. 2013.

Bruccoli, Matthew Joseph. Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

            2^nd ed. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2002. Print.

Caudle, Barb. Comcast.net. 8 June 2010. Web. 24 Apr. 2013.

Cline, Sally. Zelda Fitzgerald: Her Voice in Paradise. New York: Arcade, 2004. Print.

Croasdaile, Caroline. Americans in Paris. University of Richmond, 12 Nov. 2010. Web.

            26 Apr. 2013.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “Winter Dreams.” Metropolitan Magazine. Dec. 1922. Print.

“The Greatest Love Stories of the Century.” People 12 Feb.1996: 163. Print.

Milford, Nancy. Zelda: A Biography. New York: Harper & Row, 1970. Print.

Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., n.d.. Web. 25 Apr. 2013.

Steinkellner, Kit. Bookriot.com. Book Riot, 18 Feb. 2013. Web. 26 Apr. 2013.

Willett, Erika. Pbs.org. KQED Inc.. n.d.. Web. 24 Apr. 2013.